David Elliott

RIDE2WORK DAY 15 OCTOBER 2025

It's one week until National Ride2Work Day, so with the weather becoming warmer and drier, it's the perfect time to get back on your bike.

Even replacing a few trips by car each with with a bike ride can have big benefits to your physical and mental health, and also helps reduce strain on our congested roads.

With travel times only getting worse in the car and petrol prices straining household budgets, spring is the perfect time to fall back in love with commuting by bicycle! 🚲🚲

Great to see another round of funding announced under the State Bicycle Fund, awarding $2 million to 9 councils across 18 projects.

Each one makes a difference to making our streets a little safer for more people to walk and cycle in their own neighbourhoods.

But $2 million is a very small amount when split across so many council areas, and is a major inhibitor to the change our communities are asking for. We need to see a greater funding commitment for active transport if we are to have any hope of addressing congestion, transport pollution and road trauma.

Join me at 4pm today, chatting with Nikolai Beilharlz at ABC Adelaide radio about these exciting new projects, and the importance of more investment.

Wishing a deservedly happy and quiet post-politics life to Deputy Premier Susan Close.

A giant of the left and an incredibly competent leader and minister, she leaves an incredible legacy as an advocate and reformer.

In 2024 I successfully moved to implement a subsidy for e-bikes, cargo bikes and bike storage facilities on private land.

Open to City of Adelaide residents and businesses, the new category in the Sustainability Incentives Scheme assisted the purchase of nearly 70 e-bikes from city businesses in it's first year, helping to reduce the number of people needing to drive in our congested city!

So cool to see the initiative being proudly promoted in Rundle Mall.

Good luck to the new council members, you'll need it ☺️

Love,

City of Adelaide's shortest-serving Deputy Lord Mayor

What absolutely disgraceful behaviour from those councillors; and defending eachother to blame someone else because they wouldn't take responsibility for themselves.

Watch: 'Embarrassing' Town Hall tensions caught on livestream - News | InDaily, Inside South Australia Last night’s four-hour council meeting had it all: A gallery full of traders, a censure, suspension threats for two councillors and hecklers.

Big congratulations to SAMESH on their 10 year anniversary!

Already a decade of delivering high quality healthcare and connection to SA's q***r community, by the community, with program partners SHINE SA and Thorne Harbour Health.

It was great to attend the celebration and bump into Robert Simms MLC, another longstanding advocate for our community.

This week marks the 80th anniversary of the use of nuclear weapons to destroy the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Even as an ex-Defence member, nuclear weapons have never sat comfortably with me, and I spent my Air Force career in intelligence to minimise harm through accurate data and information.

That's why I supported reaffirming Adelaide's status as a nuclear free zone and calling for banning nuclear weapons.

Australia's defence and associated industries are important but not at the risk of escalating tensions using such indiscriminately destructive weapons. We need not repeat the tragedies of 1945.

Thank you Young Labor Left SA for your letter of support and for continuing your advocacy for a nuclear-free future 🌹

This years marks 50 years since SA became the first Australian jurisdiction to decriminalise homosexuality.
Over the last 12 months, its been a privilege to help coordinate a massive statewide program of commemorative activities by engaging more than 50 state institutions and community organisations to celebrate this milestone for the q***r community.
In 2024 I also moved a motion for City of Adelaide to produce a banner and *actually march* in the annual Pride March.

Today I checked out the new exhibition about decriminalisation by The University of Adelaide , with a fantastic array of memorabilia, and featuring a portrait of Dr Duncan by local artist and friend Danny Jarratt who renovated the painting for the exhibit!

The exhibition is free to view, 10am-4pm in the Ira Raymond Rm, Barr Smith Library until 10th October.

I spent the last three years working hard to restore funding to services, restore street maintenance services, and restore the relationship with the State Government so Council is seen as a real partner again.

I've also spent three years focussing on pragmatism and solutions, not platitudes and pedantry. I am pleased to see several candidates share my perspective and I look forward to the chance to work alongside some of them.

In case you wondered what was edited out of my response:

What is the City's biggest challenge: "It's a twin issue of financial sustainability and reputational risk; poor financial management over a long time has put the city in a difficult position to be a trusted financial partner and place to do business. We saw this when the 2018-22 term of Council made drastic cuts to community programs and infrastructure maintenance because city budgets assumed carparks would always be full enough to derive income, and that 1% annual growth in new dwellings would be enough to increase rate income. Both these key assumptions were proven nearly fatal when COVID halted city visitation and drastically slowed building, cutting off significant council revenue, exacerbated by a decade of the weak political policy of not reviewing property rates. This poor financial planning seriously put at risk the city's reputation as a place that could be trusted to deliver good quality projects and services. We have started seeing that turn around with an independent ESCOSA report indicating that for the last ten years, Council's finances were unsustainable; where it is now assessed as becoming sustainable. It will be a major challenge for councillors to resist giving into to petty dogmatism to avoid creating further risk."

Meet the candidates running for Adelaide's Central Ward - News | InDaily, Inside South Australia There are 19 candidates in the upcoming supplementary election. Here's what we know so far about who's in the running. See the full list.